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Welcome to the Final Issue of Our Class of ’74 Reunion Newsletter
When the Class of ’74 arrived on campus June 13, each of us brought 50 years of personal history to share with each other. What surprised us was how impactful experiencing our milestone reunion would be as it unfolded throughout our time together.
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Overheard at the Reunion
In Conversations Around Campus…
- “Are you sure it was me? I have no memory of that at all!!”
- “You mean the new Theater Building has already been torn down?! I guess it HAS been a long time….”
- “Hi there! You look exactly the same!”
- “Oh my gosh, it’s you! It’s a good thing we have name tags…”
- “This has been amazing — I’m so glad I came!”
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Photos from the Reunion Event
Our 50th Reunion was a smashing success and we have the photos to prove it! From the reception hosted by President Byerly at Nutting House on Thursday afternoon to the beautiful and moving memorial service near the Japanese Garden on Sunday morning, all of the weekend events were skillfully documented by Sam Stern, Steve Braun, and several college photographers. Many of those photos have already been posted on Facebook, so if you follow the “Carleton College” or the “Carleton Class of 74” Facebook pages, you may already have seen the excellent work of these skilled photographers.
Since we know that not all classmates use Facebook, we have selected many representative photos from our reunion weekend and uploaded them to our “Carleton Memories” Flickr photo portfolio. We created a new album titled “50th Reunion” and you can view the photos by clicking this link.
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A Special Evening
After dinner on Reunion Saturday evening, we were treated to a very special “dessert”– a reading of the poetry of classmate George Clabon. George was unable to attend the event, but Severance Great Hall fell silent as his friends Cornell Hills, Brink Harrison, and Jeanie Webb, read his words. Entertaining, thought-provoking, and very moving, the poems touched our hearts, and captured a wide range of emotions felt by many throughout the reunion weekend and beyond. You can read one of his poems at the top of this newsletter. If you missed the poetry reading, or would like to see and hear it again, you can watch the video here.
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A Commitment to the Future
Thank you, classmates, for responding so generously to our gift campaign and for being part of the largest-ever 50th Reunion gift to the College! Together, we raised $65,232,084, with an impressive 57.4% participation.
At our 50th, our classmates’ winding roads and philanthropic interests merged together around two key initiatives:
- Through gifts totaling $1.3 million, we established a Class of 1974 Scholarship to increase the diversity of our student body by expanding financial aid for Carleton’s highest-need students. Gifts from classmates were matched by funds from the Carleton Access Initiative.
- We also raised more than $8.5 million to create a new home for Carleton’s Student Health and Counseling Center, which will enhance the physical and mental health of students for many generations to come. “The Class of 1974 Center” will be the first building at Carleton to carry a class name in recognition of our gift. The site for the ‘74 Center is now being prepared and the building is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025.
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Early Sunday morning marked the end of the planned activities for our 50th Reunion, and it was a time for remembering and reflecting on the lives of the sixty dear friends and loved ones who we have lost over the past 50 years. A large crowd of classmates gathered near the Japanese Garden behind Watson Hall for a very beautiful and moving memorial service. The sun broke through just as the service began, and the sound of cardinals filled the air. Dennis and Ann Gastineau provided the beautiful music for the service, and several classmates recited poetry and read the names of our classmates who have passed away. The full program for the memorial service including the names of all of the participants is available here.
Memorials for all sixty lost classmates are printed in the back of the Bio Book that you received several weeks ago, and booklets containing all of the “We Remember” images were placed in the Watson lounge for classmates to view. A link to those same “We Remember” images is posted on our Class of ’74 home page and the memorial tributes can also be viewed by clicking this link.
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Meeting Down the Road
Getting together with classmates was fun and energizing! Many have commented that they’d like to keep the energy and comradery going, on a more casual basis, now that the reunion event has passed. Two of the Reunion sessions in particular, “Reflecting on the Future,” which was held in the World Cafe format on Saturday afternoon, and the “Key Moments from Our Life Journeys” program held in the tent on Saturday evening, might be good platforms from which to launch additional, informal discussions — over Zoom or in person. As you may recall, the first of these involved group discussions covering a wide range of classmates’ current pursuits, from sharing family history to improving personal well-being, to finding ways to give back in the community. During the second session, several individual classmates shared some fascinating stories from their own life experience. If you would be interested in pursuing something along these lines, or have further ideas, let us know in the comments bar, or send us an email at 50threunion@carleton.edu . We’ll keep you posted on further developments.
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Final Thoughts
That’s it from us, for now…
It has been our great pleasure to put together these eight reunion newsletters over the past year. Remembering moments from our Carleton days, learning about the lives of our classmates, getting to know each other a little better, and even making new friends along the way – it’s been a lot of fun for us and we hope you have enjoyed our efforts. Throughout the year, we kept promising that the 50th Reunion would be an awesome event, and we were true to our word. Based on your feedback, it was a great success in so many ways!
With our 50th now behind us, the winding road continues. We hope you all enjoy your summer and the years ahead. Perhaps we will see each other again at the 55th – if not before!
– 50th Reunion Newsletter Team
